Best Present Ever
by JoeMerl
Summary: Cody throws a Christmas party, and some of his old TDI friends attend. Yuletide fluff, mostly Gwen/Trent and one-sided Cody/Gwen.


Hello, fellow fanfiction readers. I was just inspired to write this by all the other TDI Christmas fics out there (in particular "All I want for Christmas" by Icee Suicune). It's my first TDI story, so I hope you all like it. Enjoy!

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"Okay, remind me again why we're here."

"Oh, come on. You _know _you love these things."

"Get off of me! I do not."

"You're smiling." There was no hiding the grin in his tone.

"No I'm not!" Gwen hid her face, unable to keep from smiling.

"Ha!" Trent teased, poking her in an annoyingly ticklish way. "Geoff's little shindig turned you into a downright party girl, didn't it?"

"Oh, do not even bring that _up,_ I'm _still _grounded over everything that happened there."

Trent laughed. Gwen smiled. "Well, alright, I'll admit I'm actually having an okay time," she said, taking a sip of punch as she glanced around the room. "And who knew Cody's parents were so loaded? I swear, this place must be two or three times bigger than my house…"

"Yeah, it's a nice place," Trent agreed. "_I'm_ more impressed on how all-out they went with the decorations."

"Yeah. The plane practically used his front porch to land…"

Gwen leaned back against the banister to take another sip of her drink, the green garland twisting up the staircase crumpling against her back. The decorations were definitely impressive—every room seemed to have a Christmas tree, even a little plastic one next to the bathroom sink. She wondered vaguely if Cody's family had gone to extra lengths for the party, or if they were really this crazy. Based on Cody's personality, either seemed possible.

"WHOO-HOO!"

"_Agh!_"

The two both jumped as a green-and-orange blur seemed to shoot out at them from behind, knocking them both to the ground. "Whoopsy!" came a giggling giggling. "Sorry 'bout that! Still working on my landing!"

"Grr..._IZZY!_"

Gwen glared at her as Trent helped her to her feet. Izzy just smiled back sweetly, looking even more ridiculous than usual with a glowing Rudolph nose and antlers strung with glowing Christmas lights. How the whole costume glowed was a mystery.

To Gwen's annoyance, Trent chuckled. "Well, Iz, you definitely seem to have the Christmas spirit."

"Oh yeah, I _love_ Christmas. And Hanukkah. Even Kwanzaa, though I've never actually met anyone who celebrates it. I actually have this theory that it was made up by this shadowy evil conspiracy group as a plot to steal the world's supply of earmuffs," she added, dropping her voice into a conspiratorial whisper and grinning insanely.

Gwen and Trent shared a look and made a silent agreement to change the subject. "So, Iz, have you seen the Codemeister anywhere? Gwen and I haven't seen him since we arrived."

"Oh, yeah, last I saw him he was headed upstairs. He said something about collecting the presents."

"Presents?"

"Yeah. Anyway, I'm off. Gonna go find Santa and sit in his lap. Hee-hee," she giggled, giving them a wink.

Gwen looked over her shoulder and gave another small smile. "You might actually have some competition there, Izzy."

"Huh?"

Izzy turned---there, across the room, Owen sat on the couch in full Santa ensemble, with Lindsay and a gaggle of other girls apparently drawn to his reality show stardom.

"Oh, _no_ they didn't," Izzy muttered, glaring. She adjusted her antlers slightly, bent down and suddenly charged screaming across the room. The sounds of crashes, bangs and girlish screams resounded a moment later.

Trent laughed. "Gwen, didn't we have an agreement about you not getting anyone killed tonight?"

"I never agreed to _anything._" She looked around. "So, I wonder what Izzy meant about pres---"

"_Ho, ho, ho!_"

"Whoa," Trent said, eyes going wide.

Cody was making his way through the crowd, a Santa hat on his head and dragging behind him a mammoth sack so huge he was using an old wheelbarrow to carry it behind him. Guests clustered around as he passed, and for each one he grinned, exchanging a few words and reached into his bag and to pull out a wrapped package. With each delivery the small crowd around him cheered, and with each back-pat or playful punch Cody's smile widened until it looked fit to burst.

Suddenly he seemed to spot Gwen and Trent in the crowd, and quickly turned to make his way towards them. "Gwen! Trent! Glad you could make it!"

"Cody, my man!" The two boys pounded fists---or tried, since Cody missed Trent's and nearly hit him in the shoulder.

"You don't really have a present for _every person here?_" Gwen blurted out, eying the giant sack.

"Of course I do!" Cody said. Then he grinned sheepishly. "I mean, just little party favors, mostly...I just wrapped them up is all."

"You're insane," Trent chuckled, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.

Cody winced slightly in pain, but his grin was instantly back. "Oh, hold on! I have _special_ presents for all my _Total Drama _friends!"

"Oh, no, really, you don't have---" Gwen began, but Cody was already digging through the sack (big enough that he could have climbed into it even with all the remaining gifts), and a moment later he emerged holding out a present to each of the two.

"But we didn't get you anything! Really, Cody, you shouldn't have---oh, wow!" Gwen ripped off the paper to reveal a large, glossy book of famous paintings, a sketch pad and a collection of very fancy felt pens.

"Oh, cool CD, man," Trent said. "But I already have---" Suddenly he squinted. "Wait---is this _autographed?_"

"Yeah!"

"Dude, this thing must have cost a fortune!"

"Well, I got it on the Internet so it was cheaper than you might expect..."

"Hang on," Gwen said, snatching the CD from Trent. "I was gonna gonna buy---dang it, you're Codeman316, aren't you?!"

Cody looked sheepish. "Heh-heh...oops. Sorry, Gwen."

Trent chuckled. Gwen shot him a look. "You wouldn't be laughing if _you'd _spent two hours tracking that thing down."

"Anyway, awesome party, man. It looks like you got half this town to show up!"

"Oh, well, you know," Cody said, puffing his chest out proudly, "just a few of my closest friends."

Gwen and Trent exchanged a look, both thinking the same thing---based on their own post-_Total Drama_ experiences, these people probably knew him more as a "character" from the show than they did from however many years they had lived together in this town or gone to the same school. But this was Cody, after all---something like that would have never occurred to him.

"Hee-hee-hee---hey guys!"

Katie and Sadie emerged from the crowd, both giggling behind their hands.

"Hey you two," Trent said. "How's it going?"

"Fine," Sadie managed to say, between another chatter of giggles, eyes darting momentarily upwards.

"Yeah," Katie said, shooting a covert look at her friend, who snorted. "You guys having a good time?"

"Fine," Trent said slowly, eying them suspiciously.

This simple answer was apparently too much for the two girls; they burst out in quiet little laughter. Gwen narrowed her eyes. "Okay, did you two have a _bit_ too much eggnog, or is there some sort of joke that we're just not getting?"

The two were too busy laughing to answer; instead they both pointed up. The other three all glanced up at the ceiling, and caught sight of the sprig of mistletoe suspended right over the space between Gwen and Cody's heads.

Cody's face instantly went red as he looked away, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "Oh---well---uh---I---um..."

Gwen and Trent exchanged a look. Trent gave a small smile and a shrug. Gwen rolled her eyes and leaned forward, turning her head to the side. "One on the cheek, Casanova."

Cody's eyes widened, face breaking again into another wide grin. Face turning even redder, he leaned forward and touched his lips to Gwen's pale cheek.

Katie and Sadie both squealed, clapping their hands. "Oooh, that is _sooo_ cute!"

"Yeah, Cody, was it everything you always dreamed of?" Katie teased.

Cody didn't answer. Instead he stood up, swayed for a moment on his feet, and then fainted, a look of pure ecstasy frozen on his face.

The two burst out in hilarity. Gwen couldn't help but quickly stifle a laugh. "Well...that was sweet," she said, turning to Trent and then back to Cody's unconscious form. "And...also kind of pathetic."

"Yeah." Trent grinned. "But I bet you just gave him a merry Christmas."

As the four laughed, Cody's eyes slowly fluttered open, one thought echoing inside of his mind.

_Best. Present. EVER._

_

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_I hope you all liked that. If so, I will accept a review in lieu of presents. Happy holidays!


End file.
